Zune 120GB, firmware 3.1Sound: very clear and natural using my Sony MDR-V900HD's at home, and Sennheiser PX-200's on the go. Indistinguishable from the great sounding Creative Zen (set flat), to my ears. The Zune has no EQ, which was initially a negative for me, but after a week of listening I don't miss it. I tried my Zen again (which I had set to +12dB on 80Hz) and with the EQ on it sounded muddy compared to the Zune. It also does gapless albums, which Creative has never heard of apparently.

Browsing: the interface is great. It's intuitive, quick, and attractive. The buttons and the touch pad all work well. It responds very well to how fast you swipe across it. It's possible to skip through your albums very fast with a few up or down swipes. The only tricky thing is the center select on the touch pad - sometimes it's tough to hit it just right.

Screen: videos and album art look exceptionally nice on the 120GB. I don't know if it's just the bigger screen size, or processor, or refresh rate, but video looks much better than it does on the Zen (which brags about its 16.7M colors). Obviously the number of colors can be a misleading spec to go by. No problems playing DVD's converted to 30fps, 1.5Mbps wmv's.

Battery: it might be possible to get close to the numbers they claim, but I think you'd have to turn off the backlight and wireless, use CBR mp3's, and not click around all that much. But it's certainly not bad enough for me to take off a star.

Zune desktop software: yes, it's a memory hog, and it barely crawls along if you're syncing and browsing and playing music. On the plus side it's attractive, and laid out in a unique and thoughtful way. Honestly, it's not the nightmare some reviewers make it out to be.

Zune Pass: I love it. I was easily spending $20 a month just to download two albums from amazon. iTunes is also 99 cents per song. It's not economical. After browsing the Marketplace selection for a bit, it was an easy decision, and I am very happy with the subscription service. There are very few songs/albums I've looked for and not found, the sound quality is the same as amazon (192kbps wma vs 256kbps mp3), and now I get to keep 10 songs (in mp3 format) per month, forever. Also the podcast selection is enormous, and there are a lot of tv shows, although they are $2 each.

The Zune 120GB is also now the sole music source in my home system. I bought the home AV pack (v2) and I run the dock's line out through the stereo. Sounds great, and the remote works well. (all the cables that come with the zune and its accessories are very nice, pro quality)

Overall, a great player, and a good experience using the Zune Marketplace with a Zune Pass. 5 stars....more info

Endless hours of frustrationThe software is so klugy and then stops syncing all together. Endless hours of troubleshooting. Don't take my word for it: go on-line to the Zune user's groups and read the hundreds of posts by frustrated owners who have tried to find ways to get their Zune to be recognized or sync. Forget Microsoft tech support. Another worthless exercise in frustration. My advice: Stay away from Zune....more info

Meets All expectationsAll of my friends have ipods and are they jealous of my new Zune. It is slick, and seems very durable with falls. I can take it anywhere and it is small enough to fit anywhere, but it also holds my entire music collection. Zune it does the job..I wouldn't change it at this point!!!! fIVE STARS ALL THE WAY BABY!!!!!...more info

Lots of great features with user-friendly softwareI'd been wanting an MP3 player for some time and had initially been considering an iPod. My husband did a lot of research for me and also spoke with co-workers, some of whom had owned both a Zune and an iPod. The general consensus was that they like the Zune better so I decided to go with it.

Am I glad I did! A distinct advantage for me was that the Zune has a radio tuner in addition to the video and MP3 capabilities. The tuner is a feature that I use quite often and I find that I get a really good signal on it for the most part, even when I'm in an windowless interior room in a building.

As for the MP3 aspect, I find the Zune very easy to navigate. The touch wheel is quite sensitive so simply brushing a finger over it moves it easily down the list. MP3s can be sorted by artist, album, song title, or genre and if you have a good, long list (as I do), you can simply hold down the bottom of the wheel and the device speeds through the list. The album art shows only when you sort by album (along with text giving the name of the album) but I find a text list easier to navigate anyway. When sorting by artist, once the artist is selected, the Zune populates a list of albums by that artist along with the album art and the album art shows on the screen while the songs are playing.

It has taken very little practice for me to become fairly handy with the software. If an album's art doesn't populate automatically, a right click on the album brings up a menu that allows you to search for the art. I was pleasantly surprised to find that album art is available even on some pretty obscure folk albums that I've added to the device.

Creating playlists is also very easy as you simply need to click on a song and then drag it down to the playlist icon on the bottom. Once a particular list is selected, the software will make it the default list until a song is added onto a different list, at which point that list becomes the default. There's a separate screen for the playlists that enables you to create new lists and to also tweak the lists you've already created by removing songs, changing the song order, etc.

My Zune has also introduced me to the pleasures of podcasts. They can be downloaded directly from the website and then loaded onto the device but there's a nice feature that enables you to copy and paste the link for the podcast download directly into the Zune software. You can then use the software to subscribe to the podcast and there are various options to customize how those subscriptions work (such as how many podcasts you want kept on the Zune, etc.). The screen also allows you to download additional podcasts from the list and to delete podcasts that are already on the device.

I've found the sound quality of the device to be very good. I've been able to play it through speakers just by plugging a speaker cord into the headphone port and the device also plays in my car via a standard speaker cord plugged into the headphone port on the device with the other end plugged into the auxiliary port in my car. When I purchased my device via Amazon, I also received a free home A/V kit that enables me to dock my Zune and then plug the kit into my television, allowing it to play through the TV.

Overall, I'm very happy with my Zune and am glad I chose it over the iPod. The radio tuner alone was enough to give it an edge over the iPod but that coupled with the fact that I don't have to run iTunes on my computer makes it superior in my eyes. I'd previously installed iTunes and once I uninstalled it, the uninstall program made a change to my registry that rendered my DVD-Rom and DVD writer inoperable. My husband had to go into the registry itself and make a change so that I could once again use the writer and the DVD-Rom. Thanks for messing with my PC, Apple....more info

Love my new Zune 120!I just got my new Zune 120 and I love it! I have the red one and it looks great. I like the big screen and the intuitive menu/navigation. While I don't have enough music to warrant getting a 120 gb device, I did so because the 120 was less expensive than some of the smaller versions. I also like that it allowed me to sync my entire music selection to it, which iPod isn't compatible with all file formats. The only issue, other than the low quality headphones, is that the Radio feature doesn't work that well inside our house, but it works just fine outside. I am glad I made this purchase....more info

WOWSome friends at work have the ipod but when they see and use the zune they all wish they got it. sounds great looks great photo video quality is a wow....more info

My first MP3 playerThis is my very first MP3 player, so I am not as demanding as some of the more seasoned users. This unit works well and performs to my expectations. Although, the Zune software is not as user friendly as it should be....more info